This app comes in a few different flavors: The Data Center Edition is primarily designed for companies that provide hosting/co-lo solutions and want to give their clients the ability to manage their own backups. The Enterprise Edition is, as it's name indicates, for enterprises, such as the company I work for, to use as their backup/recovery solution. From what I've read thus far, it appears to be a viable alternative to Symantec Backup Exec (which I'm, unfortunately, familiar with), and maybe even Microsoft DPM (which I haven't completely figured out just yet).
Now, here's the cool part, it's FREE! No agent licenses, no server licenses, no B.S. And it's open source, which means you can tweek it to your needs, should you so desire to get in there and dig around. More importantly, when you have freaky backup issues, you can actually have some greater understanding of what the software is actually doing. How freakin' cool is that?
At any rate, the install is fairly straight forward. If you've installed Ubuntu, or any other Debian-based Linux OS, this should be fairly easy to get on your system. I downloaded the Live CD iso, which contains the DC edition, with the intention of removing the DC edition once the install is complete and installing the EE version in it's place.
So far, I've gotten as far as installing the Live CD/DC edition. Here are some pics....
I'm installing this on a Dell GX620 desktop, for testing purposes. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you can boot off of the CD.
Once the system compeltes it's basic boot, you'll be presented with an install option screen like the two below: You'll want to select "Install", but this is really the "Live CD" install, so it will not automatically begin wiping out your hard drive, so no worries there.
Once you've selected your option, the system will begin to boot. Again, if' you're familiar with "Live CD" installations, none of this will be unusual...
After it finishes booting, click on the "install" icon on the desktop in order to begin the installtion process. Select your regional settings, keyboard layout, and other basics...
After you've finished selecting your time zone, you need to make some decisions about how you want to set up the partititions. Debian/Ubuntu (this version is built off of the Ubuntu "Gutsy Gibbon" release) is pretty good about identifying most of your hardware. So this is actually, usually, pretty straight forward. Let the partitioning portion do it's magic.
Once the partitioning is complete, it asks you for your user and host name configuration.
It asks for the final confirmation of you settings. Click next and you're off and running.
Once the install finishes, restart your machine. Then login using the creditials you supplied during setup, and launch your Firefox browser. The default page is, conveniently, set to an "info" page that give you some basic information concerning your Restore system.
To get to your management interface, simply go to http://localhost/restore in your address bar and enter your login information. That's it, you're in!
So, having gotten the base installed, I now need to remove the DC version, and install the EE version. But more on that next time. For now, just poke around with your new system. :)
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